Guest writer Susan Isaacs, a noted art historian, curator and educator, writes of a show of abstract sculpture curated by Alexis Granwell at PAFA. Isaacs speaks with Granwell about the exhibit, her curating and her art practice and says the exhibition of abstract works engages through its sensual materiality.
Read MoreMandy Palasik, architect, writer, artist and art lover, makes a journey to Chester County to the home studio of the late master of woodworking, Wharton Esherick, and finds the wood surfaces irresistible to the touch (which is encouraged!) in the house Wharton built. Mandy recently reviewed the Becky Suss paintings at Fleisher-Ollman, based on that artist’s experience of the home studio. Suss’s paintings are now on view at the Esherick Museum, a great pairing.
Read MoreLogan Cryer writes an insightful appreciation of the Women’s Mobile Museum culminating exhibition. The group photography show by — and depicting — women involved in the year-long project at PPAC, has some great self-representation, and Logan concludes that photography is the best medium with which to examine issues of who is normally represented in art works and who is normally excluded. The exhibition is up at PPAC through March 30.
Read MoreIn her review of Cecilia Vicuña exhibition, Andrea Kirsh calls the works — little cobbled-together objects tacked to the walls or arrayed on a low platform on the floor — marvels. But these objects are not nothings to throw away but objects with magical shadows and poetic meanings, and their mystery delights.
Read MoreRecent UArts graduate Heet Lee had her first solo museum show in Leipzig, Germany earlier this month and Artblog correspondent Olivia Jia, who visited her friend’s exhibition, tells us about it. Lee’s energetic and aggressive compositions draw imagery from a dizzying array of sources, both public and private.
Read MoreTaDa! Just for you, our annual curated list of notable people, groups, books, and other art world stuff from the outgoing year: The 2018 Liberta Awards!
Read MoreWhen an under-appreciated woman artist finally gets her due, you know Artblog will be there to cover it! Here Andrea Kirsh tips her hat to the Barnes Foundation and their major retrospective of Berthe Morisot, on view through January 14, 2019. Morisot, who was one of a small number of female artists at the epicenter of the Impressionist movement, was also a true pioneer of form and technique.
Read MoreImani reviews Poorly Watched Girls, a series of multi-media environments created by Suzanne Bocanegra at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. This complex body of work, in turns mournful and playful, will be up through February 17, 2019.
Read MoreDeb Krieger takes an early tour of The Complicit Eye, lauded ceramicist Kukuli Velarde’s first major solo show of paintings in Philadelphia. This provocative body of work, on view at Taller Puertorriqueño through April 30, 2019, reveals Velarde’s long-standing use of self-portraiture as a mode of intersectional feminist critique.
Read MoreAs we grapple with harrowing images emerging daily from California’s still-raging wildfires, Michael Lieberman turns his attentions towards a local exhibition which addresses humanity’s devastating impact on the land. Not only does “Nature’s Nation — American Art and Environment,” on view through January 6, 2019 at the Princeton University Art Museum, look back at how the visual arts have historically shaped Americans’ understanding of our environment, but it also explores how artists can impact the current climate crisis.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh pens an appreciation of Make Me a Summary of the World, Indian-American artist Rina Banerjee’s solo show currently up at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Densely layered in materials and meaning, this exhibition addresses the legacy of colonialism and the transnational nature of the contemporary art world through sensuous textures and bright colors. Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World is on view through March 31, 2019.
Read MoreJanyce Glasper offers a poetic reflection of John Dowell’s current exhibition at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Cotton: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of the Past. On view through January 21, 2019, this installation of large-scale prints and medium-format digital collages explores slavery, not as a particularly southern phenomenon, but as an institution that haunts our nation from Alabama from Wall Street. What’s more, Dowell uses the symbolic force of cotton to carve out a space for personal reflection and collective celebration.
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